KARACHI, June 2: The special court for banking offences sentenced on Thursday a crook to different terms, totalling over five year, for defrauding a bank through fake cheque. Judge Qamaruddin Bohra also imposed a total fine of Rs1 million on accused Zahid Malik, who defrauded the bank and withdrew Rs400,000 through forged cheques using a jobseeker.
Fazil Khan, a resident of Swabi who had withdrawn money from the account of Textile International in the main branch of the National Bank, was earlier convicted and sentenced by the same court.
One of accused in the case, Zamarud Khan, was on bail and he remained untraceable. The judge declared him a proclaimed offender.
Zahid Malik and Zamarud were arrested by the FIA in April 2003 following the arrest of accused Fazil Khan, who had submitted photocopy of his national identity card to the bank.
The forgery was detected when on the same day the proprietor of the Textile International, Abdul Wahid, contacted the bank to ascertain his balance.
He also informed the bank that the number on the forged check was identical to the one he had already issued on March 5, 2002, for Rs 30,000.
A bank team, deputed to track down the presenter of the cheque, apprehended Fazil at his house and later handed him over to the FIA.
Fazil told the investigators that he had been jobless for a long time. He said he had gone to the office of a private security service where a man, identifying himself as Manzoor Hussain, intercepted him and offered him employment.
The FIA arrested Manzoor Hussain whose real name was Mohammed Zahid Malik. Later, FIA investigator Inspector Khalid Jamil arrested Mohammed Zamarrud who was believed to have been instrumental in the processing of the forged cheques.
A blank cheque book and some blank sheets of the cheque book paper were also seized from Zamarrud.
The judge sentenced accused Zahid Malik to suffer a four-year term under Section 468 of the Pakistan Penal Code. A fine of Rs400,000 was also imposed on the convict, who would have to undergo an additional 16-month term in case of default on the payment.
Another term of one-year was handed down to the accused under Section 420 of the PPC. He was also ordered to pay a fine Rs400,000 or undergo an additional two-month term in lieu of payment.
The judge also sentenced the crook to a one-year rigorous imprisonment for the offence under Section 471. A fine of Rs200,000 was also imposed on the convict, who would have to undergo an additional four-month term in case of default on the payment.
